My daughter loves dumplings. Since I'm not often making them from scratch, I do tend to have a bag or two of frozen potstickers in my chest freezer at all times. And when we're in a bit of a rush for dinner, they become the crowning touch on a soup I could make every week and my family would keep asking for more: Potsticker Soup.
Since I tend to regularly make homemade broth of various types, I will use what I have on hand. My most recent batch and the one featured in these photos used a slightly spicy turkey broth I made after roasting a Thai curry rubbed turkey. Of course, you can always opt for your favorite brand of broth from the market as well. Just please don't use bouillon. Much of the flavor in this soup comes from the slightly-tweaked broth and bouillon tends to lean toward salty water more often than not.
Speaking of salt, the saltiness of this soup comes mostly from the soy sauce used. I like a very thick, dark soy sauce for flavoring it and tend to use a mushroom soy sauce that's so thick, it can be effectively drizzled over the top of your soup as part of your garnish, if you so choose.
Using a candy cane or golden beet will allow you to enjoy its sweet flavor in this soup without the telltale red streaking associated with ruby red beets. This is especially recommended since julienning a beet will absolutely have juice coloring your broth when using a more common red beet. You can also omit the beet and double the amount of carrot, if you prefer. As is often the case with recipes here, feel free to tweak things a bit and make it your own. Enjoy!
Potsticker Soup
- 8 c. broth (I used homemade turkey broth)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced (white section for cooking, green for garnish)
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 tsp. minced ginger
- 1 T. dark sesame oil
- 1 T. dark soy sauce (I used a thick mushroom soy sauce)
- 1 beet, julienned (I used a candy cane beet)
- 1 large carrot, julienned
- 10 oz. frozen potstickers (I used pork and vegetable)
In a stockpot, combine the broth, white part of the green onions, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Heat until simmering and allow to cook for 5 minutes before straining out the white part of the green onions. Add the beet, carrot, and frozen potstickers. Return to a simmer and cook until the potstickers float to the top of the pot.
To serve, ladle the soup — being generous with apportioning the potstickers — into bowls and garnish generously with the green part of the green onions.
- Yields: 4 servings
- Preparation Time: 20 minutes